Halfway there!

20 weeks today and ultrasound in the morning...I had been debating whether to find out the gender or not...but daddy wants to find out and I am really bad with surprises. Yes, I am that person that will snoop before xmas...even when I tell myself to not snoop I "accidentally" run across the gifts anyways. So I don't know what I was thinking that I may not want to find out at the ultrasound. So we will be finding out in 9 hours!!!!

We ran a little poll for people to guess what the baby will be. 32 votes, 53% say girl and 25% say boy (the rest wouldn't commit either way...) What do I honestly think? I have no idea. With #1 I was CONVINCED it was a girl because my mother had morning sickness for 9 months with the girls and not at all with the boys. Since I had morning sickness, I knew it was a girl...had a name pretty much picked out, scoped out pink clothes, etc. HAH! Big brother flashed the ultrasound and I knew before the technician even told us that he was an "outtie".

So what about #2? The morning sickness was about the same, which would argue for a boy... big brother is convinced it is a sister so it would be a boy just to spite him. Arguments for a girl? Daddy is the only son of an only son so the tradition will likely continue...we have very boy clothes so we would have to buy some new stuff (is that a bad thing?)

So really, it's up in the air. I don't even dare to venture a guess. To be continued :)

Kiddo has been very active in the belly. We had a little bit of a scare with my blood pressure about a month ago when I had bronchitis...we were getting ready to go to the 10KLF after getting home from a trip to visit family on the West Coast and of course I caught the crud which then settled in my chest. Long story short, BP went from systolics of 100s to 150s in about a week with protein in the urine. Much badness. After an extensive workup (and treating the bronchitis) it mellowed down to a much more reasonable level and the kidneys checked out fine. Still, scary. With #1 I had to drop 4 weeks of med school rotations because of pregnancy induced hypertension. I am really hoping to not do a repeat performance this time. There are lots of things that I hope to not repeat...going a week past the due date, having an emergency c-section, NICU stay...granted, I am very grateful for the end result and wouldn't really change anything that happened the first time around. This time we are doing a couple things different. We are using a midwife, we're going to do a little studying up on birth partner techniques and we will be going for a VBAC. Debating on whether to entertain the option of an epidural (hubby laughs when I say this and reminds me how much it hurts and how I wanted to kiss the anesthesiologist when he was done...thanks hun) We are also contemplating cloth diapers but may compromise on the g-diaper system.

As for big brother, he is pretty excited for the baby to come. He will come up to me randomly and start talking to my tummy and give it kisses. Too cute. We are starting to work on getting him moved downstairs to his new room sooner than later so he won't feel displaced by the baby. We are also contemplating getting him his own "baby" in the form of a doll to care for and mimic actions that mommy and daddy will be doing with the new baby. Also looking into a hospital tour for him to see where the baby will be born. Good times ahead.

And, final topic for this post, we will be joining the minivan club. Yes, my mother decided it was time to get a new car (cash for clunkers may have spurned that...even though her old car did not qualify) so we will be inheriting her beloved minivan. It is 3 years "younger" than our newest car and 8 years newer than the Toyota. My mom and sister are planning a road trip soon to deliver the new wheels and it will be really good to see them. Much excitement!!!

Excited about tomorrow! Glad to be able to stop calling the baby "it"!